The Guardium UGV autonomous vehicular robot can use GPS and its own decision-making skills to maneuver around on guard duty.
(Guardium UGV demonstration video)
This robot can also be provided with a variety of special options, like tile fire indicator, a missile approach warning system, chemical snifters, fire extinguishers, and even an "RFID Interrogator."
Give it a few more decades, and it will start to perform like the ED-209 from Robocop. The Enforcement Droid Series 209 is just the kind of sidekick that 2084's robot police will need.
(ED-209 Enforcement Droid Series 209)
Okay, their appearance is not very similar, but we've got like seventy-five years to get it working right.
Tactile Skin Supplier Map
'What strange sensitivity! What an amazing development of science was manifested in every move and act and word of this Robot!' - Ray Cummings, 1931.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!)
is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for
the Invention Category that interests
you, the Glossary, the Invention
Timeline, or see what's New.
Prairie Madness - And Space Sickness
'Space-sickness is one of the most unpleasant sensations that a human being can experience. Not all are subject to it...'
'Old People Began to Cross The Continent In Their Own Cars'
'It was a relief to enter one of the comfortable autos, whisper a direction down the tube, and just know that you would be taken to your destination in the quickest, safest, and cheapest manner.'
Starfall Manufacturing Drugs In Space
'The vast spinning sphere of Factory in the Sky loomed above and ahead of us, gleaming white against the unfathomable jet depths of surrounding space.'
The Solar Oberth Slingshot
'And if it doesn’t work,' inquired Lazarus, 'what does that make us? Sunspots?'
'If Anyone Is Watching Earth...'
'Our study of your race has convinced us that you are not fitted to leave your planet in the present state of your civilization.'